Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) delay in sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate showed that Democrats “are in a total panic.”
“I think the Democrats are in a total panic,” he added. "Yesterday was a very, very bad day for Democrats and it was a bad day for the House of Representatives and for the country.”
After Trump was impeached in a sharply partisan vote on Wednesday night, Pelosi said that she doesn’t know when she‘ll submit the articles to the Senate, claiming she’d hold them until the GOP-controlled chamber commits to a “fair” trial.
“When we see what they have, we’ll know who and how many to send over,” Pelosi told reporters. “The next thing for us,“ she added, ”is when we see the process set forth in the Senate. We will have the monitors set forth and who we will choose.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House Majority Whip, said Thursday that the delay could go on indefinitely.
Other Senators also criticized Pelosi for her decision.
“Is this a joke? Democrats impeach the President without alleging a single crime, with a bipartisan coalition voting AGAINST, and now don’t have the guts to actually try their case? Did they put the country through this chaos just for their own amusement?” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a statement.
“Playing games with the transmission of the Articles to the Senate will not impede or influence the Senate, but it will be the kind of partisan political stunt that further undermines the credibility of the process carried out by House Democrats,” added Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Frankly, I’m not anxious to have the trial. If she thinks her case is so weak she doesn’t want to send it over, throw me into that briar patch,” he said.